Winning the lottery is the dream of many, but what if it didn’t depend on luck, but on logic? That’s what Jerry Selbee, a retiree from Everett, Mich, USA) with a talent for mathematics who, together with his wife Marge, managed to amass a fortune of 26 million dollars between 2003 and 2012 thanks to a completely legal method.
This is the perfect example of how a few curious rules and a little bit of “basic arithmetic”, as Jerry contends, can turn an ordinary married couple into the sensation of a small town and even the country. In fact, their story was so movie-worthy that in 2022 it was adapted for the big screen under the title. Jerry & Marge Go Large.
It all started in 2003 when Jerry, newly retired and with a lot of time on his hands, stopped in front of an ad for the Windfall state lottery. While most saw only a sign with numbers and prizes, he saw an opportunity. “I read the fine print and it took me less than two minutes to realize that this game could be profitable.”explains in an interview with Los Angeles Times.
The “peculiarity” that the pensioner found was in the rules of the draw: if no one matched the six winning numbers, the prize was shared among those who matched five, four or even three numbers. This system, called roll-down, increased the likelihood of profit if enough tickets were purchased.
With a keen mind for mathematics, he did the math: by investing $1,100 in tickets he was guaranteed to win at least $1,900. And he didn’t miss. “Out of 18 [boletos]I got $1,000 for a four-number winner and 18 three-number winners worth about $50 each, which is about $900,” he says in another CBS interview.
“We were helping the people we loved.”
At first, Jerry and Marge were playing with small amounts, but they began to realize that the more they invested, the bigger their winnings became. Thus, they decided to professionalize their strategy and created a company, GS Investment Strategies LLC, to manage the bulk purchases of bills.
Most surprisingly, they didn’t do it just for themselves. They invited family, friends and neighbors in their Everett community to invest with them and share in the profits. “It wasn’t just personal success. We were helping the people we loved.” Jerry assures.
When the Windfall lottery was cancelled in Michigan, instead of pulling out, they looked for another opportunity. They found it in the state of Massachusetts with the Cash Windfall game, which followed the same rules. For six years, traveled hundreds of miles to participate.
They did not break any law
The increasing activity of the retirees attracted the attention of the media and society. Even the newspaper The Boston Globe investigated his method to see if it broke the rules. However, the authorities concluded that what they were doing was completely legal.: they were not manipulating the results or altering the system, they were just playing the game better.
And the Selbee’s never felt guilty. “It’s just basic arithmetic,” Jerry reiterates. Nor were they the only ones to discover this trick: a group of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also took advantage of the same system, causing a national debate over whether such games should be regulated.
However, after winning millions, the couple did not succumb to the temptation of luxury. They didn’t buy mansions or sports cars and instead continued to live a quiet life in their hometown. “It gives you incredible satisfaction to succeed at something that not only benefited our family, but our entire community,” Jerry declares.
Although the Cash Windfall lottery also ended up being cancelled.but the experience left them with much more than money: a story to tell and a film that immortalized their ingenuity.